pushing 40

Well, back from Cleveland. My son didn't place in the speech contest but the experience alone was worth all the effort. He really enjoyed himself and I think he got a good grasp of the fact that learning public speaking at the age of 16 is going to be a very worthwhile endeavor and will pay off greatly later in life. I was so proud to see my little man up there in front of all those people and judges. And here's a funny thing: he told me he no longer fears losing his hair like dear ol' dad at all after seeing my initial results. He was shocked at how natural it looked and says its not a concern for him anymore. Sweet!! Bill, you took the staples out yourself?????????? Dude, those muscles are going to your head!! How the heck did you possibly manage that? Criminy. I have already lost over half of the transplant hairs. They are all over my pillow in the morings and when I wash my hair they are covering my hands. Oh well. Much of the redness is gone; scar seems to be healing well. Itching is still obnoxious. I'll get some "2 weeks pics" up tomorrow.

Please tell us you meant to type 24 / 48 hours post op; not days. If its days, somemthing is slightly amiss.

Sweet Jumpin' crimeny! They are out! My wife did a good job but it still hurt a little bit. She said the scar is looking fantastic so far; good to hear. Today was day 11 for me and is the day Dr Hasson said to take them out. I shaved my head as soon as we were done. My head is still swollen though; tried to put on one of my hats with the normal adjustment and it still won't fit. Already lost quite a few the transplanted hair too. Kinda sucks but on to the waiting game I guess.

You're lucky. I have to admit this has been a little painful. The first night I had quite a bit of pain which surprised Dr Hasson. Oh well, like you say, it will be worth it!

Really? Shit, maybe I should get checked to see if mine should stay in longer?

I'm looking forward to taking them out but nervous at the same time. The back of my head feels so freakin' tight it feels like it would split back open without the staples. Well, maybe not that tight but you know what I mean. If I touch my chin to my chest, its really tight back there. I've also been putting vitamin E oil on my recipient area and donor scar for the last few days; it helped A LOT with the crusties coming off (almost completely gone now) and stopped the itching in the donor scar completely. It also seems to have helped with the redness but that might have just been the coincidence of passing time.

Thanks guys, puts my mind at ease. (man I wish I was only pushing 30) Taking the staples out tomorrow, can't wait! These things do suck when it comes to sleeping. Putting the towel under my neck does help to fall asleep but keep waking up with a headache from moving and laying on them while I'm sleeping. And I get to buzz my head as soon as they're out! My son has a regionals speech contest Saturday in Cleveland and I'll be going "aunatural" for it since I can't bring myself to wear a baseball cap with a suit. Always remember: "dockers are NOT dress pants"...........

To be totally honest, I 'd pay a couple of crisp ones to walk into to Target and see some mope skipping around with chunks of hair glued to his head....

That seriously sounds disgusting.....

click on your name.

For anyone wanting to resize their photos, I found and use a really good FREE program called IrfanView. Like I said its free to download and is great for shrinking pictures.

My scalp hurts!! Is this normal. I am mostly numb in donor and recipient areas but the top of my head where nothing was done is very sensative. You know how if you sleep on your hair wrong all night and then run your fingers thru it, it kind of hurts on the scalp surface? That is how this feels. Very annoying. No infection or anything visible but it is uncomfortable. On a positive note, my wife says the scar already looks awesome. She says most of the length of it you can't even see where the skin goes together and the other spots are only a very tiny pinkish line.

That is going to look awesome. Please keep updated, thanks.

Any reputable doctor would not conciously over charge for grafts. A hair mill like Bosley maybe, but not a professional.

I think that is NOT the case 99% of the time. Most all posters here are just helpful, period. Every once in a while some schmuck tries that crap and is found out rather quickly; you just can't hide a "hidden agenda" for very long on here. Seriously.

Hey Gorp! Man, I remember over a year ago joking with you on this forum right before your first txplant; now you've already had your 2nd and I finally did mine. Following you for a year and seeing how natural yours turned out was a big push for me! And by the way Gorp, don't take offense, but even if your honey's face wasn't blocked out in that picture, we'd STILL be staring at a certain other "admirable" portion of her anatomy!

It is hard to tell from the pic but I think you might be ok. I just had surgery on 20 March and this is what happened to me: after my shower yesterday, there were a couple of 2 and 3 hair grafts that had this white coating covering most of the actual hair. I was like "wtf, is that a graft coming out?" It seriously scared the crap out of me. But, after letting it dry, it was a VERY thin whitish coating that ended up kind of peeling off the hair. My wife (an ER trauma nurse) said it was most likely just excess oil and "goop" from the healing incision. The hairs are still there so I'm just going to assume she's right.

Oh shit!! Separated at birth???

thanks guys! And yes, it really is exhilarating! Facial swelling is bad but I didn't realize until this morning that my whole head is swollen also. I went to put on a ball cap to check the mail and had to adjust it WAY out to even be able to sit it on top of my head! Sleeping is a real pain in the ass also. I'm waking up every time I move my head because of the staples. It feels like you have a rope wrapped around the back of your head. I have GOT to quit stopping every time I walk by a mirror. I just can't help it though. I can't get over how dense he put the hairs. I took a close up pic of the transplanted area and a close up of a small patch I shaved on the side, put them together and compared the density. They pretty much match. Even the pattern of the way hair grows naturally is the same. I can chalk that up to Dr. Hasson's experience and expertise I guess. Hopefully this means I'll be able to grow/style it pretty much any way I want. Give me another week to calm down and I'll stop muttering on I think. We'll see . And let's hope Bill doesn't decide he wants them since he probably bench presses twice my body weight on a daily basis.

Thanks Joe. I added 8 or 10 more photos this evening so only a few more to add. My eyes are almost swollen shut and starting to turn black. Nice

g255, It is nice to see someone come up with an idea, do the research, consider all the data, and then make a confident, logical decision. You obviously do not work in government! At least the option is still there for you in the future if things change. Good luck to you!

Damn is that clean or what? Are ya happy?!! I can actually say I know exactly how you feel brother! Hope the swelling don't kick your ass like it is mine. Damn, I never did get that coffee. I'll get it next year when I bring my wife up with me. Happy growing to you!

Thanks HB. Yes, I am truly stoked! I thought I wouldn't really be excited until it grew in but the minute I saw the finished product you could not wipe the smile off my face. I was just immediately tickled shitless over the whole thing and still am. The swelling is bad today and the wierd itching in the incision is driving me nuts but being retired, I can just sit here at home and deal with it patiently. I'm going to post some more photos later once I get them resized; they're all like 2meg right now so just too big to post. My wife was shocked at the density of it; she didn't realize he would be able to put the hair so close together and thick like this. Hell, I guess I didn't either really. I am definately a happy camper. I think it will look pretty good once it is grown in. And I will definately continue posting my progress.

Thanks guys. Yeah, this swelling is bad. This morning my eyes are almost shut. Last night I was "inspecting" things and was shocked by the attention to detail Dr. Hasson put into this. The way the hairs are directed and laying exactly like the naturally occuring hairs in an area and the "fanning" of hairs as they change direction where there were none but now are is amazing. Damn I hope this turns out good.

Thanks Bill! That's my plan! Yeah, those puppies are packed in there pretty tight. I didn't realize how many hairs there actually are until I got home and was able to get a really close look with a magnifying mirror; holy crap!! Standing back looking at it and it looks like there is little places with no hairs. But then up close its like "holy crap" there ARE hairs in there. Doc Hasson did a great job. Something else that is funny: my wife and kids have never even seen me with a hairline like this. They are really tripping out.